A Conversation About How We Change the World

I'm gearing up for a big week next week. And I hope you can join me in an on-going conversation online, throughout the week, because I need your voice to make a difference. I'll be in New York City and am excited to talk with everyone from world leaders at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) annual session to social good advocates at the Social Good Summit about how the world is doing when it comes to improving life for the poorest people. I’m also eager to try something new. I'll be a “keynote listener” at the Social Good Summit, where I’ll share the stage with and learn from some incredible activists from around the world doing cutting-edge work using social media for social good.

It's such an important time to have these challenging conversations. We are nearing the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, a report card first agreed upon in 2000, that tell us how the world is doing on everything from eradicating extreme hunger to reducing the number of children who die every year.

Here's the great news: we've made amazing progress, as you'll see in the slideshow above.

I know we still have a lot of work to do. But I want to make sure we take a moment to reflect on what's already been accomplished. My hope is that all of us will use these successes and commit to doing everything in our power to keep them going, now and into the next fifteen years.

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"Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

"The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

"When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.